Environmental Practices

When Jack and Jamie Davies purchased the property that once belonged to Jacob Schram they had a choice. In fact, they had a lot of choices. They could tear down the old house and build something modern, they could clear more of the trees to make room for additional vineyards, or they could fashion a state-of-the-art winery facility.

From the beginning Jack and Jamie chose to preserve what was already there. They retained the name of Schramsberg Vineyards to honor its founder. They restored the ancient homestead and raised their family in the house that Schram built. They kept the original barn and made their wine in the crumbling old cellar, utilizing the underground caves that were dug in the late 1800s for bottle aging. They retained 155 acres of forested land, using only 43 acres for vineyards. Eventually, a newer winery was built to supplement the old one, and great care was taken to utilize the original cellars and honor the charm of its historical design. At Schramsberg, preservation has always been an integral part of the plan. In 1957, Schramsberg was named a historical landmark and has been put on the list of registered historic sites.

Schramsberg has also been recognized and awarded for the efforts taken to preserve the house and other historical buildings on the property.

In 1967 Jack Davies served as chairman of a citizen committee formed to support the creation of the Napa Valley Agricultural Preserve. His tireless efforts to support agricultural land preservation helped shape the heart of Napa’s wine industry. To carry on his legacy, the Davies family established the Jack L. Davies Fund in order to advance his work. The fund underwrites research and education towards the preservation and sustainability of agricultural lands for years to come. To support this effort, Schramsberg Querencia Rosé was created, with a portion of the proceeds from its sales benefiting the JLD Fund.

Today, Hugh Davies and the current Schramsberg team continue the tradition adopted by Jack & Jamie, taking it a step further with a solid set of practices and policies that ensures conservation and stewardship of the land. Currently, Schramsberg follows a rigorous schedule of environmentally friendly practices, including:

Installation of a 466,806 kilowatt-hours solar array, consisting of 1,655 panels that cover 3/4 of an acre of land, and producing enough energy to eliminate the emission of 466,806 pounds of CO2 annually, offsetting the amount of CO2 absorbed by 700 acres of trees or produced by powering 2,981 100-watt incandescent light bulbs. See our current solar monitor statistics